History of Topics 2004

  The second game of the 42nd Judan title match, a best-of-five, was played at the Kanucha Bay Hotel and Villas in Nago City, Okinawa, on 26 March. Playing white, Cho U Honinbo defeated O Rissei Judan by 1.5 points after 314 moves,and so evened the score 1-1.   The third game will be played in Omachi City in Nagano Prefecture on 8 April.

  The seventh game of the 28th Kisei title match has witnessed the birth of a new titleholder. Hane Naoki did it the hard way: he seemed to have the match all wrapped up when he swept to a 3-0 lead, but Yamashita Keigo made a great comeback, taking the next three games to set up a climactic showdown. At this point, the tide changed once again, with Hane Naoki scoring a convincing win and taking the title.   The seventh game was played in Toi-machi in Shizuoka Prefecture on 17 and 18 March. Hane drew black in the nigiri and was able to maintain the advantage of the first move, despite the 6.5-point komi. He went for territory while Yamashita played his typical game of building a large-scale position. Unable to catch up, Yamashita launched a number of do-or-die attacks, but Hane won two successive capturing races and took a firm grip on the game. After a last unsuccessful attack, Yamashita resigned after Black's 155th move. His reign as Kisei had lasted just one term.   The game finished at 6:42 p.m. on the second day. Both players were in byo-yomi, with Hane having six minutes of his eight-hour time allowance left and Yamashita five minutes.   The new number one player is 27 years old. Hane also holds the Tengen title.

  O Rissei has made a good start in his defence of his sole remaining title,the Judan. The first game of the best-of-five title match was played at the Takashimaya Inn in Iwamuro Hot Spring on 11 March. Playing white, O defeated the challenger, Cho U Honinbo, by 9.5 points after 281 moves. The game finished at 6:50 p.m.   The second game will be played in Okinawa on 26 March.

  Just a month ago, most people (present writer included) had more or less written off Yamashita's chances of defending his Kisei title. He was mired in the worst slump of his career, with an eight-game losing streak, and he had lost the first three games of the 28th Kisei title match.
  Things are looking rather different now, as Yamashita has made a great comeback to even the score. The sixth game of the series was the most spectacular so far, with fierce fighting starting early and two large trades being made. Playing black, Yamashita forced the challenger, Hane Naoki Tengen, to resignaiton, after 177 moves and so evened the score at 3-3.
  The game was played in Muika-machi in Niigata Prefecture on 10 and 11 March and ended at 5:43 p.m. on the second day. Of their time allowances of eight hours each, Hane was down to his last minute of byo-yomi while Yamashita still had 70 minutes left.
  The deciding game will be played in Toi-cho in Shizuoka Prefecture on 17 and 18 March. Professionals believe that the player winning the sixth game of a best-of-seven has the psychological advantage and has the momentum. This is borne out by the statistics: in the past four decades: the player winning the sixth game has also taken the final game in 64% of cases. Of course, Hane wouldn't take any notice of this statistic even if he knew it, but he could be forgiven if he were beginning to get a bit worried. He has only a week to recover his equilibrium, so there seems to be a good chance that we will see another 'miraculous comeback'.

  Kobayashi Izumi has defended her Women's Meijin title with straight wins and maintained her place at the peak of Japanese women's go with three titles to her name. The second game of the 16th title match was held at the Nihon Ki-in in Ichigaya, Tokyo, on 3 March. Playing white, Kobayashi defeated Inori Yoko 5-dan, a fellow disciple of her father, when the challenger resigned after just 96 moves. Inori had played a little too aggressively, staking everything on killing a white group. When Kobayashi succeeded in making life, Black's position was hopeless.
  This is Kobayashi's third victory in this title and her second in a row. She now moves up to equal third place among women players with nine titles to her name. One more win and she will catch up with her mother, the late Kobayashi (Kitani) Reiko, and Sugiuchi Kazuko.

  The final of the 23rd NEC Cup, played on 6 March, pitted Izumi's father Koichi against the current NHK champion Mimura Tomoyasu 9-dan. The latter has been doing very well since he won the NHK Cup last March and seems to have lifted his game to a higher level (best demonstrated by beating Yi Ch'ang-ho and taking second place in the TV Asia Championship). However, he met his match in Kobayashi in the NEC final. The latter edged him out by 2.5 points playing with black and so won this title for the third time.
  Kobayashi has now won 58 titles. Of course, he would dearly like to make a comeback in a top-seven title, but victories in the minor titles are enabling him to steadily creep up on Sakata's total of 64. Cho Chikun is in top place with 65, of course, and it will be a little harder to catch up with him, as he is younger than Kobayashi. Incidentally, Cho and Kobayashi may meet in the final of the 51st NHK Cup - Cho has already made the final and Kobayashi's semifinal game is telecast on 14 March.

  Cho U Honinbo and O Rissei Judan were the only undefeated players in the 29th Meijin league, but both lost their games in the fourth round, played at the Nihon Ki-in on 4 March. Fortunately for them, they keep the lead, but two other players, who have played one game fewer, now have a chance of catching up and making a four-way tie for first.
  Both league games were played at the Nihon Ki-in on 4 March and both were won by black. In one, O Meien 9-dan beat Cho U Honinbo by 5.5 points. In the other, Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan beat O Rissei Judan by resignation.

The top group is:

3-1 : Cho U, O Rissei 2-1 : Imamura Toshiya, Yamada Kimio.

  Yamashita Keigo Kisei's prolonged slump has spoiled his chances of doing well in either league, but he may go out of the Honinbo league on a better note than he started. In his second-last game, played at the Nihon Ki-in on 4 March, he defeated Kato Masao 9-dan by 2.5 points holding black. These two players are now level on 2-4, so they both still have a slim chance of keeping their places.
  Actually, even though he is out of the running to become the challenger, Yamashita could play a very important role in the final round, as he is slated to play the sole leader, Mimura Tomoyasu 9-dan, who is on 4-1. A win by Yamashita would probably throw the finish into a tie.

  In the list of most games played between the same two players, posted on 10 February, there was an important omission. According to the Complete Games of Go Seigen, he played 83 games against Kitani Minoru, so they should have 14th place on the list. Perhaps they were omitted because the Nihon Ki-in database doesn't have a complete record of older games (before the 60s).

  For the first time in a while, Yamashita is displaying the power that won him the Kisei title last year. In the fifth game of the 28th Kisei title match, played at the Kanporo Inn in Hakone on 25 and 26 February, Yamashita, playing white, seemed to unsettle his opponent, Hane Naoki Tengen, with a forceful thrust on move 22 that enabled him to seize the early initiative. Continuing with more powerful moves that defied prediction by the players following the game in the pressroom at the inn, Yamashita took the lead and held on to it despite a do-or-die attempt by Hane to stage an upset.
  Hane resigned after 156 moves. The game finished at 4:13 p.m. on the 26th. Hane had only six minutes left of his time allowance of eight hours, but Yamashita finished with two hours 19 minutes to spare.
  This convincing win could be a sign that Yamashita is finally coming out of the terrible slump that has plagued him in recent months. Hane will no longer be feeling so sanguine about his chances of becoming Kisei, though he still has the advantage with three wins to two losses.
  The sixth game will be played in Muika-machi in Niigata Prefecture on 10 and 11 March.

  The first game of the best-of-three title match for the 16th Women's Meijin title was held at the Hotel New Otani in Tokyo on 25 February. Playing black, Kobayashi Izumi, the titleholder, defeated Inori Yoko 5-dan by resignation. Both these players are disciples of Izumi's father Koichi.
  The second game will be played on 3 March.

  The 59th Honinbo league had been settling into a two-horse race between Kobayashi Koichi 9-dan and Mimura Tomoyasu 9-dan, the only players with only one loss. Mimura was the first to play his fifth-round game and he improved his score to 4-1 by defeating O Meien 9-dan. That put a lot of pressure on Kobayashi, but when he played his fifth-round game on 26 February, he slipped up, thus surrendering the sole lead to Mimura. Playing white against immediate past Honinbo, Kato Masao 9-dan, Kobayashi was forced to resignaiton when Kato killed a large group. That made his score 3-2, so he dropped into a four-way tie for second place with Yoda Norimoto, O Rissei and Cho Sonjin.
  If Mimura drops either (or both) of his remaining games, against Yamashita Keigo Kisei and Cho Sonjin, all the players in second place have a chance. Actually, a multiple tie with six players on 4-3 is theoretically possible, though only the two highest-ranked players would qualify for the play-off to decide the challenger.

On 19 February, Ishida Yoshio 9-dan became the 10th player to score 900 wins when he defeated Rin Shien 6-dan in a game in the final preliminary round of the Kisei tournament. His total is 900 wins to 533 losses, a winning record of 62.8%.

  In-between his Kisei games, Yamashita Keigo played the semifinal of the 23rd NEC Cup. Taking white, he lost by resignation to Kobayashi Koichi 9-dan. The other semifinal was played earlier; Mimura Tomoyasu 9-dan forced Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo, to resignaiton when he caught a large group. The final, scheduled for 6 March, will therefore feature a clash between the two players who have been the main rivals in the current Honinbo league.

  Under the new promotion system, the top prizewinners in the dan groups from 6-dan down are promoted a rank. A meeting of the screening committee was held on 24 February and decided the promotions listed below.

To 7-dan: Cho Riyu
To 6-dan: Takei Takashi and Kobayashi Izumi
To 5-dan: Kawai Shoji and Yamamori Tadanao
To 4-dan: Yamada Shinji and Kato Yuki
To 3-dan: Mitani Tetsuya and Mannami Kana
To 2-dan: Oba Junya and Inoue Hatsue.

  The promotions are effective as of 1 April. Probably the happiest player among the above is Inoue Hatsue, who has spent 31 years as a 1-dan. She won her way into the Preliminary B of the Kisei tournament last year, which considerably increased her winnings.
  Separately announced were two other promotions based on cumulative-win records. Ikezaki Tokinori was promoted to 5-dan, having won 70 games as a 4-dan. Thanks to 30 wins as a 1-dan, Asano Yasuko won promotion to 2-dan.

  In a game in the main section of the 31st Tengen tournament played on 19 February, Michael Redmond 9-dan (B) lost to Komatsu Hideki 9-dan by resignation. Exactly a week later, he did better, defeating Yamashiro Hiroshi 9-dan by half a point with black in the final preliminary section of the 43rd Judan tournament.
  Former Finance Minister becomes Chairman of the Kansai Ki-in
  At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Kansai Ki-in held on 24 February, former Finance Minister Shiokawa Masajuro was chosen as the new Chairman of the Board. The post had been vacanct since the death of Wada Hiroshi, Professor Emeritus of Osaka University, last June.
  Shiokawa retired from politics in October last year. Besides Finance, he has also been minister of Transportation and of Education.

  At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Kansai Ki-in held on 24 February, former Finance Minister Shiokawa Masajuro was chosen as the new Chairman of the Board. The post had been vacanct since the death of Wada Hiroshi, Professor Emeritus of Osaka University, last June.
  Shiokawa retired from politics in October last year. Besides Finance, he has also been minister of Transportation and of Education.

  The Women's Kisei is a haya-go (fast go) tournament played with the same conditions as the NHK Cup, that is, 30 seconds a move, with ten minutes' thinking time to be used at will in one-minute units. Games are broadcast on the Igo & Shogi cable TV channel, and first prize is 3.5 million yen. For the past four years, the title had been held by Chinen Kaori, but this year she was dethroned by Mannami Kana 2-dan, who is just 20 to Chinen's 29. Mannami took the title with two wins to one loss. It's very pleasant for Mannami to have a title, as she gets a lot of exposure as the M.C. of the weekly NHK Cup TV program, and the commentators working with her can be relied upon to make some flattering references to her triumph.

Results:

Game One (22 Jan.). Mannami (W) by 3.5 points. Game Two (30 Jan.). Chinen (W) by 4.5 points. Game Three (6 Feb.). Mannami (B) by 12.5 points.